A potpourri of bribery, Canada, Russian organized crime, Russian Oligarchs and money laundering

Tweet How organized crime used to work in Russia This is not a story but a potpourri of interesting events involving bribery, extortion, attempted murder, banking, Russian organized crime, Oligarchs and Canada.  We start with Russian Oligarch Vladimir Ivanovich Yakunin (Владимир Иванович Якунин), a high level politically exposed person.  Yakunin was a former KGB agent and Soviet […]

Mexico’s FIU freezes bank accounts used to launder money of 1,937 suspected CJNG cartel members and their lawyers

Tweet Mexico’s financial intelligence unit, working with the DEA, yesterday announced that it had frozen the bank accounts of 1,770 men and women and 167 companies believed to be tied to, or working for, the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (“CJNG“), believed to have been used to launder approximately US$1.1 billion in proceeds of crime from […]

Launder money; lose your hand – two judges in Brunei caught laundering money avoid harsh sharia law punishment after taking $15 million from Court bank account and spending it on luxuries

Tweet Two High Court judges in Brunei convicted of money laundering and breach of trust for looting a Court trust account, will not be punished under Brunei’s new sharia law, which involves the hudud punishment of having their right hands amputated. Instead, they are going to jail. In July 2018, the two judges, Haji Nabil […]

SEC files injunction against digital currency executives who allegedly obtained investments on the basis of false representations

Tweet The US Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC“) filed a complaint in Texas on March 16, 2020, against Robert Dunlap, Nicole Bowdler, the girlfriend of Dunlap, and a former Washington State Senator, David Schmidt, in connection with a digital currency they launched called Meta 1 coin (the “MetaCoin“) which raised US$4 million from the […]

Iranian president alleges nothing being done in Iran to investigate corruption by politically exposed govt officials

Tweet The president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, delivered a speech over the weekend in Iran alleging massive corruption by senior government officials, and claimed that over $700 million is gone that was under the control of the Minister of Petroleum, Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, and a further $2 billion is unaccounted for in foreign countries in […]

First of its kind PEP lawsuit? Lebanese lawyer sues Minister of Foreign Affairs for money laundering and taking state assets

Tweet A Lebanese lawyer, Maitre Marwan Salam, has sued the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gébran Bassil, for corruption, money laundering and enrichment from state assets. Massive protests have been taking place in Lebanon for several weeks over political corruption. Last month, the New York Times reported that the Lebanese prime minister, Saad Hariri, had […]

8 questions you may have had about the movie “The Laundromat” and yes, there are British Columbia connections

Tweet Part 1 – Background Skip this Part 1 if you know about Mossack Fonseca and shell and shelf companies. The movie The Laundromat is about lawyers and big law firms and the system that fuels offshore money movements, often involving the proceeds of crime. The movie is about a big law firm called Mossack Fonseca that […]

France & Spain go after Syrian PEP, the Butcher of Hama’s $1 billion in unexplained wealth

Tweet Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, is facing permanent asset forfeiture in France in connection with unexplained wealth and asset accumulation in France. He was charged in France last month with corruption, money laundering and embezzlement of state assets from Syria. He was ordered to remain in France. He is a politically […]

Colombian financial crime police find suspected money launderer on Instagram buying Lamborghini and Porsche on her Dad’s $2,400 a year salary

Tweet The Colombian financial crime police noticed and tracked down a suspected money launderer by following her extravagant shopping sprees on Instagram. Jenny Ambuila, a Colombian foreign national, was arrested by Colombian federal police for suspected money laundering. She posted many images of expensive purses and 5 star hotel stays in the EU as well as […]